3 March EU-Russia summit

Date: 06/03/1997

IN A week of profound Russian turmoil, President Boris Yeltsin finally met the EU's highest dignitaries. European Commission President Jacques Santer and Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok, who holds the EU's rotating presidency, praised market reform in the country and pledged support for Russia's integration in the global economy.

“It is clear that Russia and the European Union need each other and have the political will to cooperate,” Kok told a news conference after the meeting. Describing his encounter with Yeltsin and Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin as having “a very good atmosphere”, he acknowledged the economic difficulties faced by the world's largest country, but welcomed its efforts to overcome them. “Of course problems remain, but Russia is on the right track,” he said, adding his support to Moscow's bid to join the World Trade Organisation. Kok affirmed that the EU was helping Russia through a range of aid programmes.

YELTSIN's press service was also upbeat about the meeting. “Relations based on partnership and cooperation between Russia and the European Union are key to strengthening security and stability on the continent,” it said in a statement. It added that a partnership and cooperation accord between the two sides - liberalising trade and forging commercial links - would come into effect before the summer, and that agreement in principle had been reached on a 'permanent mechanism' to deal with economic, trade, scientific and cultural issues. Russia reiterated calls for greater access to EU markets, opposed in the Union by firms fearful of cheap competition. Forty per cent of Russian exports go to the EU, ten times more than to the US.

YELTSIN stated once again his fierce opposition to NATO expansion into central and eastern Europe. But Kok expressed the hope that a compromise could be reached in time for the alliance's Madrid summit in July, when it is widely expected to invite Poland, and possibly the Czech Republic and Hungary, to join. He adding that there were no parallel Russian concerns about Union enlargement to the East.

COMMENTING on Yeltsin's health, Kok said that he was “in excellent spirits; a creative, active negotiating partner”. The Russian premier had been due to see EU leaders in The Hague in early February, but the meeting was cancelled due to Yeltsin's pneumonia.